Fear

I really hate to admit it, but some forty years ago I was actually chased by a rabbit! Well … at least I thought I was, and I was terrified!

What happened was, our family included several animals, including a frustrated female dog who was never going to have her own puppies, and who was clearly unhappy about it. So one Saturday, she found a nest of baby bunnies, and stole one, and lovingly brought it in to show me.

Needless to say I was not thrilled, so I wrapped the bunny in a towel, and took it back out to turn it loose. My dear husband and at least one son were at the back of our property where the woods started, and I assumed that our Lady-dog had found the bunny there, so I started for wood-edge to turn it loose.

I gave said bunny to my husband and started back to the house. Almost immediately I heard shouts behind me; I looked back, and there was that miserable rabbit running straight for me! I don’t know what I was thinking – the possibility of rabid rabbits must have crossed my mind – but I shrieked, and took off across that grass like the hounds of hell were after me! And then that bunny passed me at great speed and dived under a flowering bush, where his home, now-obviously, was!

Meanwhile my child and my previously loving husband were back at the woods, rolling on the ground and screaming with laughter! So delighted that I was able to amuse those wretches.

But you know, fear really can wipe every other emotion from our minds, even groundless fears like my reaction to a frightened little bunny.

We all know that there are very different kinds of fear. Some of them are good, and meant to protect us from dangerous or harmful situations. But many are more our reaction to a circumstance where we don’t know what to do, or when we expect very negative things to overwhelm us, and we see no way to cope. And we sometimes forget in the moment that we have that ever-present friend in times of trouble, our Jesus, who knew all along what we would be facing, and always stands ready to give us his own strength and wisdom, and urges us to lean on him. He told us that in this world we will have trouble, and oh my goodness, do we ever know how true that is!

One thing I know very well: that the longer I have followed Jesus, the less and less I have been attacked by fear. That is surely because in my many years I have seen over and over how God has worked in every hard time in my life, and so I trust Him, and, I guess, I EXPECT God to  come through for me. And He always does.

         I will praise the Lord at all times.

                  I will constantly speak his praises.

         I will boast only in the  Lord;

                  Let all who are helpless take heart.

         Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;

                  Let us exalt his name together.

         I prayed to the Lord and he answered me.

                  He freed me from all my fears.

         Taste and see that the Lord is good;

                  Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him.

                           Psalm 34.

—Norma Stockton